On Becoming A Cartoonist
Someone once told me there are two things to consider when thinking of becoming a cartoonist: 1. You must be funny and 2 You must know how to draw.
I am not a very good artist, but am told I am funny. I have written humor stories that have been published. Since the founding of Londons Times Cartoons, I’ve published over 8500 original cartoons. Before launching the project in 1997, I contacted the biggest names in the industry and several of them were generous enough to show me the ropes. Their names are Leigh Rubin (Rubes), Dave Coverly (Speed Bump) and Jon McPherson (Close To Home)
I will not bore you with the details of my false starts, my economic woes, my losing artists as quickly as they arrived, or any of that. You can only imagine.
The secret is simply to learn, research, and act. Keep working. If you draw, draw your cartoons. Send them out. Post them on the net. Let trade magazines know you exist. Blog. Do article marketing. Do everything you can. You will succeed if you don’t give up. You will be one of the 1% or so who does.
Fast forward ten years and the smoke has settled. I have worked with some of the best cartoon illustrator in the world, writing the cartoons and concepts and assigning them to my cartoon team.
I can draw but not well. I wanted a well-drawn cartoon. I found artists who were good at that. Many are still with me. You can do it too if you don’t mind some rejection at the start.
Do you have to be funny? Well it couldn’t hurt. But the word “funny” is subjective. I get emails and letters daily asking from everything to autographs to permission to print in periodicals, training manuals, newspapers, magazines, etc.
One does not have to stop with a cartoon site. There are ways to produce revenue from them, such as making Ecards, creating a membership site, or selling the cartoons to magazines and newspapers, but the big money is in merchandising and licensing, that is, creating products, or letting others do it, with permission to use your cartoon images.
Another Shakespeare: “To Thine On Self Be True”. Nothing is more on target than in writing and cartooning. Especially on the Internet. There’s another saying, “The Internet will always find you out”, and that is so true. If you are not yourself, even on the Internet, you will be like the Wizard Of Oz behind the curtain, not so big (mainly because you are not being yourself).
The tell yourself you know you are going to come across rejection. If it were easy, everyone would be doing it. I cannot begin to tell you how many rejection letters don my walls. I remember the first one that was from an angry New York literary agent. I wanted to do a series of cartoon books and queried agents (before I was even a little-bit well known). I received one letter back; it was the one I sent her and she merely wrote at the bottom “What do I need with another failed cartoonist?”. I braced myself for the emotional blow and kept going, knowing that Margaret Mitchell had over 40 rejection letters for Gone With The Wind. Isaac Asimov had his share. So did many others. So why not me? I had fun putting myself in the league with literary giants who were used to rejection. Suddenly I felt a bond with them.
When I started Londons Times Cartoons there were no cheap domain registrars. Now one can be purchased at places such as GoDaddy for $9 a year. That’s a lot better than a subdomain with popup ads and people take you more seriously
One day, in 2005, I got a call from a newspaper publisher wanting to know if he could run my cartoons. He said he saw my website was the 67,000th most popular site on the Internet according to Alexa.com (Amazon.com’s analytical site). I had no idea. I thought we were still getting a few hundred visitors a day. We were getting 4000 hits an hour, and to date have had over 7.5 million hits since early 2005. I am still astonished.
I can’t imagine trying a project like this, unless it was local, if there was no Internet. The Internet and all its new tools and information almost prevent you from failing, if you will learn but just a fraction of them.
Like my mom, a former schoolteacher, words, and the turning of a phrase was important. Mom was right. More right than I knew at the time
The Internet has virtually (no pun intended) leveled the playing field for anyone with the least bit of creativity who wants to express it.
To me, cartooning and journalism is watching the U.S. Constitution in action. Nothing could be more pure than this sort of freedom of expression by the people. Our founding fathers were beyond brilliant, don’t you think? Whatever your goals, I wish you the best of luck and a prosperous New Year.
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